What if Walt Disney was the producer of Looney Tunes/Walt Disney Animated Classics/The Rescuers
The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Walt Disney and first released on June 22, 1977 by Buena Vista Distribution. The film is about the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York City and shadowing the United Nations, dedicated to helping abduction victims around the world at large. Two of these mice, jittery janitor Bernard (Bob Newhart) and his co-agent, the elegant Miss Bianca (Eva Gabor), set out to rescue Penny (Michelle Stacy), an orphan girl being held prisoner in the Devil's Bayou by treasure huntress Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page). The film is based on a series of books by Margery Sharp, most notably The Rescuers and Miss Bianca. The Rescuers entered development in 1962, but was shelved due to Walt Disney's dislike of the project's political overtones. During the 1970s, Walt revived it as a project for the younger animators, but it was taken over by the senior animation staff following the release of Robin Hood (1973), which Walt considered both Charlotte's Web and The Rescuers as the perfect stories to returning the classic, emotional and fantastical tone from his first films after overfocusing on comedy in the 1960s and early 1970s. The Rescuers was released on June 22, 1977, to positive critical reception and became a box office success. The film was also successful throughout the world including France and West Germany. A direct-to-video sequel titled The Rescuers Down Under was released in 1994, along with a television series of the same name. Plot In an abandoned river boat in Devil's Bayou, a young orphan named Penny drops a message in a bottle, containing a plea for help into the river. The bottle washes up in New York City, where it is found by the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization inside the United Nations. The Hungarian representative, Miss Bianca, volunteers to accept the case and chooses Bernard, a stammering janitor, as her co-agent. The two visit Morningside Orphanage, where Penny lived, and meet an old cat named Rufus. He tells them about a woman named Madame Medusa who once tried to lure Penny into her car and may have succeeded in abducting Penny this time. The mice travel to Medusa's pawn shop, where they discover that she and her partner, Mr. Snoops, are on a quest to find the world's largest diamond, the Devil's Eye. The mice learn that Medusa and Mr. Snoops are currently at the Devil's Bayou with Penny, whom they have indeed kidnapped and placed under the guard of two trained American alligators, Brutus and Nero. With the help of an albatross named Orville and a dragonfly named Evinrude, the mice follow Medusa to the bayou. There, they learn that Medusa plans to force Penny to enter a small hole that leads down into a pirates' cave where the Devil's Eye is located. Bernard and Miss Bianca find Penny and devise a escape plan. They send Evinrude to alert the local animals, who loathe Medusa, but Evinrude is delayed when he is forced to take shelter from a flock of bats. The following morning, Medusa and Mr. Snoops send Penny down into the cave to find the gem. Unbeknownst to Medusa, Miss Bianca and Bernard are hiding in Penny's skirt pocket. The three soon find the Devil's Eye within a pirate skull. As Penny pries the mouth open with a sword, the mice push it out from within, but soon the oceanic tide rises and floods the cave. The three barely manage to retrieve the diamond and escape. Medusa breaks her promise to Snoops that he can have half the diamond, and hides it in Penny's teddy bear while holding Penny and Snoops at gunpoint. When she trips over a cable set as a trap by Bernard and Bianca, Medusa loses the bear to Penny, who runs away with it. The local animals arrive at the riverboat and aid Bernard and Bianca in trapping Brutus and Nero, then set off Snoops's fireworks to create more chaos. Meanwhile, Penny and the mice commandeer Medusa's swamp-mobile, a makeshift airboat. Medusa unsuccessfully pursues them, using Brutus and Nero as water-skis, and is left clinging to the boat's smoke stacks as Snoops escapes on a raft and laughs at Medusa, while the irritated Brutus and Nero turn on her and circle below. Back in New York, the Rescue Aid Society watch TV to hear that the Devil's Eye is given to the Smithsonian Institution and Penny is adopted by a new father and mother. Bernard and Miss Bianca remain partners in the Rescue Aid Society's missions and soon after departing on Orville, accompanied by Evinrude, to a new rescue mission. Cast * Bob Newhart as Bernard * Eva Gabor as Miss Bianca * Geraldine Page as Madame Medusa * Michelle Stacy as Penny * Joe Flynn as Mr. Snoops * Jim Jordan as Orville * John McIntire as Rufus * Jeanette Nolan as Ellie Mae * Pat Buttram as Luke * James MacDonald as Evinrude * Bernard Fox as Mr. Chairman * George Lindsey as Deadeye * Larry Clemmons as Gramps * Dub Taylor as Digger * John Fiedler as Deacon Owl * Shelby Flint as Singer, Bottle * Bill McMillian as TV Announcer Production n 1962, the film began development with its initial treatment developed from the first book centering on a poet held captive by a totalitarian government in the Siberia-like stronghold. However, as the story grew overtly involved with international intrigue, Walt Disney shelved the project as he was unhappy with the political overtones. However, he had revived The Rescuers in the early 1970s as a project for the young animators, led by Don Bluth, as the studio would alternate between full-scale "A pictures" and smaller, scaled-back "B pictures" with simpler animation. The animators had selected the most recent book, Miss Bianca in the Antarctic, with its story focusing on a captured polar bear forced into performing in shows causing the unsatisfied bear to place a bottle that would reach the mice. Jazz singer Louis Prima was to voice the character named Louis the Bear, and this version was to feature six songs sung by Prima written by Floyd Huddleston. However, in 1975, following headaches and episodes of memory loss, Prima discovered he had a stem brain tumor, and the project was scrapped. Meanwhile, Walt and the "A" crew had finished work on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Robin Hood (1973), and were set to begin production on an adaptation of Paul Gallico's book Scruffy under the direction of Ken Anderson. Its story concerned the monkeys of Gibraltar under World War II that would be threatened by the Nazi Party's attempt to capture them from the British Empire during World War II. When the time had come to green-light one of the two projects, Walt eventually decided to go for The Rescuers. When Scruffy was shelved, Walt turned the project into a more traditional, full-scale production ultimately dropping the Arctic setting of the story with veteran Disney writer Fred Lucky stating, "It was too stark a background for the animators." Cruella de Vil from One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) was originally considered to be the main antagonist of the film, but Walt stated it felt wrong to attempt a sequel to an unrelated film and the idea was dropped. Instead, she was replaced by a retouched version of the Diamond Duchess from Miss Bianca. The motive to steal a diamond originated in Margery Sharp's 1959 novel, Miss Bianca. Her appearance was based on animator Milt Kahl's then-wife, Phyllis Bounds (who was the niece of Lillian Disney), whom he did not particularly like. This was Kahl's last film for the studio, and he wanted his final character to be his best; he was so insistent on perfecting Madame Medusa that he ended up doing almost all the animation for the character himself. Penny was inspired by Patience, the orphan in the novel. For the accomplices, the filmmakers adapted the character, Mandrake, into Mr. Snoops and his appearance was caricatured from animation historian John Culhane. Culhane claims he was practically tricked into posing for various reactions, and his movements were imitated on Mr. Snoops's model sheet. However, he stated, "Becoming a Disney character was beyond my wildest dreams of glory." Brutus and Nero are based on the two bloodhounds, Tyrant and Torment in the novels. Animation Music Track list Release Marketing Home media Reception Box office Critical reaction Accolades Sequel Trivia * This is the final film to be directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, as well as the last Walt Disney classic to be animated by members of Walt Disney's "nine old men". * The New York Metro Station and Times Square is seen during the scenes with Bianca and Bernard. * This is the first Disney film to feature pop music as opposed to orchestral music * This was Joe Flynn's last film. He recorded all his lines as Mr. Snoops only a few weeks before his untimely death on July 19, 1974. The film was released three years later. * This is the first time since 1973 where two Disney animated feature films were released the same year (e.g.: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) which came out three months before The Rescuers). * In the scene where Penny was about to make her escape at night, the foliage and trees in front from The Jungle Book is reused.